They expect the state to treat them equally with the rest of economic entities.
Non-government organizations are adaptive, they manage to work with few resources and in critical situations, that’s why they managed to survive. These are the results of the research “Impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the Bulgarian NGOs”, conducted by BCause Foundation.
The research is focused on the reaction of non-government organizations to the new situation, created by the world pandemic with COVID-19. It explores their actions during the first four months after the announcement of state of emergency and the following emergency epidemic situation in Bulgaria, their work during the crisis and whether they had the necessary financing. It was held during the second half of July 2020 and 113 non-government organizations took part in it, working in all fields of public life in Bulgaria.
The report from the research shows that the greater part of the organizations, 95.6%, working in all sphere of public life, have continued working, in most cases with reduced teams, financing and work volume. The participating organizations from the social sphere have increased their work volume.
“The crisis imposed on us a very heavy working schedule, so that we can support the people, working in the field, and at the same time there were no funds for this extra work. Volunteering without fixed working hours has become a daily life for us during the past few months. We expect going on living like this during the autumn and winter as well”, a participant in the research shares.“
The NGOs have managed to adapt themselves to the situation with innovation – working online, using technology, adapting to the new needs, enlarging the scope of people, being supported, as well as through new partnerships. More than the half (60 NGOs, 53.1%) have invested in trainings of the personnel or upgrading their technological equipment.
Тhe NGO sector has coped financially thanks to private financing and volunteering. Even during the crisis, state support has been received only by 5 % of the participants in the research. Most of the support was provided by donations from foundations (22 NGOs, 19.5%), fundraising campaigns (20 NGOs, 17.7%), companies (15 NGOs, 13.3%), individual donors (21, 18.6%).
The programmes for crisis grants have reached less than one third of the participants in the research, most of them naming “United against COVID-19” – 12 NGOs, IRIS Programme – 5, Urgent Fund against Domestic Violence – 4.
41 NGOs out of 113 (36.3%) have raised crisis funding through fundraising campaigns. They did that, using their website in most cases – 27 NGOs (65.9%) of the organizations, who have held fundraising campaigns. Almost half of the organizations, who have raised money (18 out of 41), have used more than one tools.
Among the fundraising tools, most popular are the Bulgarian DMSbg.com (18.44% of those, having raised money) and platformata.bg (11.27% of those, having raised money), and among the foreign ones – GlobalGiving.org (5.12%). Less organizations have used Gofundme.com – 1, HelpKarma.com – 2, TimeHeroes.org – 1 or the social networks Facebook and Instagram.
If there is a second wave of COVID-19 the organizations expect the state to treat them equally with the rest of economic entities – to support them with target financing for preserving job positions, supply flexible unconditional grants and target financing for the increased volume of work.
The organizations have most concerns for the near future in regard to the political decisions, undermining the trust in NGOs, and political instability.
Elitsa Barakova, executive director of BCause Foundation: “The ability of NGOs to adapt to the crisis and continue working close to people that need them is really impressive. The 24/7 work of the social organizations is equally impressive. Having in mind all these efforts, it is equally despairing to see that NGOs were the only ones, excluded from any efforts for state support, preserving job positions and their core activities, and instead they were subjected to reputational attacks.”
In regard to the grant programmes for the NGO sector, some of the respondents express concern that resources are mainly redirected to overcoming the problem with COVID-19, but activities, vital to society, are being neglected. The situation with donations is similar.
This research is a joint activity for the organizations from CAF Global Alliance and is being held simultaneously in six other countries: Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, India and South Africa.
The report is available only in Bulgarian : „Въздействие на кризата COVID-19 върху българските НПО“, юли 2020
